Kennesaw State names Bohannon as new program's inaugural head coach

KENNESAW, Ga.-– Brian Bohannon, who has spent the past five seasons as quarterbacks/B-backs coach at Georgia Tech and engineered one of the country’s most prolific spread option offenses, has been named the first head football coach at Kennesaw State, Director of Athletics Vaughn Williams announced on Sunday.

“This is an extremely exciting moment in Kennesaw State University history,” Williams said. “Coach Bohannon embodies every value, characteristic and skill set that we look for when choosing head coaches to lead our student-athletes. Brian has distinguished himself as a servant leader who will build a program the right way. I can’t wait to kick off that football in 2015.”

Bohannon will be introduced at a press conference inside the Owls’ locker room at Fifth Third Bank Stadium on Tuesday (March 26) beginning at 11 a.m. (ET). The event will be streamed live at www.ksuowls.com.

“Let me start by saying how excited I am to be the first-ever Kennesaw State head football coach,” Bohannon said. “Kennesaw State is a special place with a great student body, administration and faculty, and I am just excited about the opportunity.

“I also want to give special thanks to University President Dr. Dan Papp, Vaughn Williams, the search committee and the people I met with during my interview,” Bohannon added. “I thoroughly enjoyed the process, everything was run in a first-class manner, and I can’t wait to get started. My goal is to work toward developing the total student-athlete in the classroom, on the field of play and in the campus and local communities.”

A native of Griffin, Ga., Bohannon has 17 years of coaching experience at the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) levels, all of which have come while working with Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson.

Under Bohannon's direction, former Georgia Tech quarterbacks Washington and Joshua Nesbitt emerged as two of the most prolific signal callers in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) history. Nesbitt and Washington combined to rush for more than 5,000 yards and rank first and third, respectively, in ACC history for career rushing yards by a quarterback.

Under Bohannon, four players have rushed for more than 1,000 yards in a season -- B-back Jonathan Dwyer in 2008, Dwyer and Nesbitt in 2009, and B-back Anthony Allen in 2010.
Dwyer was a first-team All-ACC selection in 2008 and 2009. Nesbitt was the first team All-ACC quarterback in 2009, and Allen was first-team all-conference in 2010. Dwyer and Allen are both enjoying successful NFL?careers.

Bohannon helped Washington emerge from a back-up quarterback in 2010 to one of the ACC's most productive signal-callers in 2011 and 2012. Washington's 986 rushing yards in 2011 were the second-most ever by a Georgia Tech quarterback and his passing efficiency (155.4) was the third-highest in Yellow Jacket history.

Bohannon helped Nesbitt develop from a running specialist out of the shotgun into one of the nation's premier dual threat quarterbacks. Nesbitt completed his career as the most prolific rushing quarterback in ACC?history. He likely would have become just the eighth player in NCAA?history to rush and pass for 3,000 career yards if not for an injury that cost him the final four games of the 2010 season.

Before arriving at Georgia Tech, Bohannon spent six years as wide receivers coach at Navy. He was part of a staff that returned the Midshipmen to the national spotlight. Navy won 35 games during four years, earning a school-record four consecutive bowl berths and a school-best four consecutive Commander-In-Chief's Trophies.

A four-year letter winner and standout as a wide receiver at Georgia, Bohannon started his coaching career at West Georgia before earning his first full-time position at Gardner-Webb (N.C.) as wide receivers coach in 1996.

Bohannon earned his bachelor's degree in general business from Georgia in 1993 and a master's in business education from West Georgia in 1996. He is married to the former Melanie Cobb and they have three children, sons Blake Patrick and Braden Thomas, and daughter Brooke Anna.